JB Hi-Fi Begins Selling TiVo In Australia

JB Hi-Fi CEO Richard Uechtritz had repeatedly stated that he wasn’t sure if his stores would pick up the Australian TiVo or not once the Harvey Norman exclusivity period had lapsed. But it seems that he’s decided it is worth carrying as they head into the holiday shopping season.

“Australian consumers today are quite savvy and willing to invest in digital devices that will stay relevant over time as well as bring ongoing services and benefits,” said Uechtritz. “We believe the TiVo media device will achieve this.”

The article in Current also mentions that“Clive Anthony’s store will also stock TiVo.” So now that’s Harvey Norman, Dick Smith, Clive Anthony’s, and JB Hi Fi. (And, seriously, what’s up with the men’s names for electronics stores?)

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The names often reflect the company history. Dick Smith Electronics was founded by a guy named Dick Smith (incidentally, he’s a multimillionaire “adventurer” type, a bit like Steve Fosset but not missing, and has his own line of cheapo food product knockoffs now). Harvey Norman was set up by Gerry Harvey and Ian Norman, though you never hear about the former.

Never heard of Clive Anthony’s, but Wikipedia tells me they’re from Queensland and owned by JB Hifi, so that explains that. Wouldn’t be surprised if that was the founders name, too.

Other examples of similar naming include Myer (founded by Sidney Myer) and Bing Lee (founded by, you guessed it, Bing Lee). A lot of retail companies here started out as family businesses and have kept their names — why change when you have an established brand?

http://abortrephrase.com/ Matt

Harvey Norman was set up by Gerry Harvey and Ian Norman, though you never hear about the former.

Erm, sorry, you never hear about the latter. Gerry Harvey is pretty high-profile.

http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ Gryphon

Here in the States, we used to have more retail chains named after people, but most were regional deals and have either gone under, been bought up by faceless conglomerates with chain names that are carefully demographic-neutral, or changed their names to a similar sort of neutrality. Off the top of my head, the only two high-profile retail establishments I can think of that still trade under their founders’ names are J.C. Penney and Sears (well, and Kmart and Wal-Mart, if you stretch, the founders having been chaps called Kresge and Walton respectively). All the other big players tend to have generic names like Target and Home Depot.

Part of it, I suspect, is that the focus-group mania of the ’90s tended to homogenize trademarks. You can always find one person in a focus group with some kind of grudge against something the name of the company’s founder seems to represent, and so the company winds up with a name like “Best Buy”. From this far away, Australia seems to be somewhat less prone to that kind of foolishness, or maybe that’s just wishful thinking. Somewhere in the world ought to be.

http://www.gizmolovers.com/ MegaZone

Sears used to be Sears-Roebuck, and there was Montgomery Ward, which became Wards, but now seems to be the former again – online.

I think others like Lord & Taylor, Macy’s, etc, are named after people. But the names aren’t as blatantly like the name of some bloke.

http://www.eyrie-productions.com/ Gryphon

Technically, Sears still is “Sears, Roebuck & Co.”, but they don’t use the company’s full name in their branding any more.

I didn’t think of Macy’s or L&T, mainly because I tend to associate them more with clothes and cosmetics than electronics, toys, or tools (the three things I’m most likely to go into a department store after).